What do Kate Moss, Andy Grey and Sarkozy have in common? They all got caught out; saying or doing things they didn’t want to go public. Things they weren’t proud of and found difficult to defend.
Today’s technology has made life much easier, with the unintended consequence that almost anything can be recorded.
YouTube is filled with mishaps caught on camera. Facebook stories circulate about people posting travel or party photos just hours after they called in sick.
It’s not paranoid to think you could have a Sarkozy moment and discover your conversation wasn’t private.
We live out loud and nothing’s off the record.
You’re surrounded by CCTV cameras and people armed with a phone, ready to record or take a sneaky snap and make it public. So how do you protect your reputation?
Perhaps as technology advances we need to return to an old fashioned idea about values.
When’s the last time you thought about that?
Where the heck do I keep my values?
Wikipedia says: Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior.
I was impressed by the parents of London rioters that believed so strongly in their personal values they made their own kids accountable for their actions. Several were quoted saying “they weren’t raised that way, they know better.” For them, there wasn’t a moment of hesitation, they knew what they believed in and acted on it.
Your principles, your ethics, your convictions, they all add up to a set of values that define what you believe is right and good.
But sometimes, these get overshadowed in the moment by the excitement of a free pair of trainers, snatched from a shattered store window, or the pressure to meet financial obligations.
“I lost my morals,” said Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the phone hacking scandal that closed News of the World. I’m pretty sure he dropped them on his way to work.
He’s not the only one. Take a moment to think about what you believe in, shake out the values you’ve gathered through life and see if they still fit.
If you’re clear about your foundations and can live your beliefs, you’ll never have to defend your actions, even if you get caught out loud.
Check out these light hearted examples of other people living out loud.
http://www.overheardintheuk.com/
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com
http://overheardlondon.livejournal.com/
Kathy Reeves Consulting 